Academic Affairs Leaders

Amanda M. Thomas, Ph.D., Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs

Amanda Thomas joined the Loyola faculty in 1991 in the department of psychology, was tenured and promoted to associate professor in 1997 and promoted to full professor in 2002. She served at Loyola as department chair, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and associate vice president for graduate studies. She served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Saint Joseph’s University and then Dean of Loyola College of Arts and Sciences at Loyola University Maryland. Dr. Thomas received her B.A. from the College of William and Mary, a M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Georgia, and completed her predoctoral internship in clinical psychology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She is licensed to practice psychology in the state of Maryland. Dr. Thomas’s research focuses on family factors in adolescent functioning as well as anxiety disorders, particularly on the obsessive-compulsive spectrum.

Jen Lowry joined the Loyola faculty as an assistant professor in 1996 in the department of psychology, and was tenured and promoted to associate professor in 2002. While in the psychology department she served terms as director of undergraduate education, and also as department chair. She received her B.S. from the University of Evansville, and holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, both from Saint Louis University. She is licensed to practice psychology in Maryland. Dr. Lowry has the primary oversight for undergraduate achievement and success. She works closely with the academic deans and dean of undergraduate and graduate studies to view the undergraduate curriculum from a university-wide perspective, and oversees objectives and initiatives related to the strategic plan. She provides leadership and innovation regarding new undergraduate curricular initiatives, academic advising, student academic support services, and study abroad, as well as the Messina program, National Fellowships, the pre-law program, the offices of undergraduate and graduate studies, international programs, international student services, and the records office. She also serves as academic liaison to governance and supervises the secretary to governance.

Cheryl Moore-Thomas joined the Loyola faculty as an assistant professor in 2000, was tenured and promoted to associate professor in 2007 and promoted to full professor in 2017. She served as Associate Dean of the School of Education, Chair of the Department of Education Specialties and Director of the School Counseling Program. A graduate of Loyola, she holds a B.A. in elementary education and a M.Ed. in school counseling. She completed her Ph.D. in counselor education at the University of Maryland. She is a board certified counselor through NBCC. Dr. Moore-Thomas is an active researcher with publications in the areas of racial identity development, multicultural counseling competence, college and career readiness, and access and equity in education. Working with the VPAA, Deans, and Academic Departments, Dr. Moore-Thomas coordinates faculty hiring, development, retention, inclusion and mentoring programs across the career cycle; oversees the strategic digital pedagogy initiative and plans for a faculty development center; leads diversity and inclusion initiatives in Academic Affairs; oversees the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs; provides leadership for the Faculty Director for Community-Engaged learning and Scholarship and the Director of Digital Pedagogy; and collaborates across the institution to support graduate programs and graduate students.

Stephen Fowl, Ph.D., began teaching in Loyola’s Department of Theology in 1989. Since then he has taught in all levels of the university. An internationally recognized scholar of the New Testament, Dr. Fowl has written or edited 12 books and more than 50 articles or chapters in books. In 2001 he won Loyola’s Nachbahr Award for outstanding scholarly contributions in the humanities. Prior to becoming interim dean, Dr. Fowl chaired the Theology Department, the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, and served a term as chair of the Academic Senate. He holds a B.A. and M.A. from Wheaton College and a Ph.D. from the University of Sheffield (UK). As Interim Dean of Loyola College of Arts and Sciences Dr. Fowl oversees all aspects of academic life in the humanities, social sciences, and the natural and applied sciences.

Joshua S. Smith, Ph.D. is the dean of the School of Education at Loyola University Maryland. Smith earned his B.A. in U.S. History, M.S. in Educational Psychology and Statistics, and Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Methodology from the
University of Albany, State University of New York. Earlier in his career, he served as an academic advisor and later as director of assessment in the office of undergraduate studies at the University of Albany. Smith has been awarded over $3 million in external funding and he has 20+ publications in the areas of educational transitions. Awards and honors include the 2012 Student Government Associate Servant Leader Award, 2006 Indiana University Trustees’ Teaching Award and the National Advising Association’s 2002 Outstanding Advising Award. He is the immediate past-President of NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising, President for Maryland Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (MACTE), and President of the Education Conference of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU).

Kathleen Getz earned her B.S. in Human Development from The Pennsylvania State University, MBA. from Gannon University, and Ph.D. in Business Environment and Public Policy from the University of Pittsburgh. Her scholarship has considered issues at the intersection of corporate responsibility and economic development, focusing on the role of business in building peace, bribery and corruption, and voluntary codes of conduct. She has been a speaker for the Department of State International Visitors Program, the Washington Board of Trade, and other organizations. She is former associate editor for the journal Business & Society and Past President of the International Association for Business and Society. She held an Aspen Fellowship in 2000 and was elected as a Fellow of the International Association for Business and Society in 2006. Dr. Getz is actively engaged with the AACSB, serving on peer review teams and as a member of the Continuous Improvement Review Committee.

Dr. Derrickson holds a doctoral degree from the University of Pennsylvania and is an associate professor in the Biology Department. She received the Harry W. Rodgers III Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award early in her career and has been active in engaging students in research, both in the classroom and in her laboratory where her current research focuses on the impact of protein deficient diets on the gastrointestinal tract and on female reproductive success. Her research has resulted in presentation and publication with students in national and international venues. Dr. Derrickson has served as chair of the Academic Senate for seven years, co-chair of a successful Middle States reaccreditation review, Interim Chair of the Biology Department, co-chair of the Pre-Health Professions Committee, and as a member of many university-wide committees. Dr. Derrickson will use her deep and wide-ranging institutional knowledge to help individual students in their formation during challenging times and to develop programs and practices that raise the academic success of all students. In her role as Dean, she will work closely with the Academic Advising and Support Center, The Study, and the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate and Graduate Studies. Dr. Derrickson will be a member of the Academic Affairs leadership team, and she will serve as a resource person for faculty, students, and parents.

Natka Bianchini, Ph.D., 2019 Class Dean

Dr. Natka Bianchini, who holds a bachelor's degree in sociology from Wellesley College and a master's and doctoral degree in drama from Tufts University, joined the Loyola faculty as an assistant professor of fine arts, theatre, after teaching at Boston College and the University of Maryland, College Park. She was tenured and promoted to associate professor in 2015. Having published several articles and reviews in national journals in her field, Dr. Bianchini's monograph, Samuel Beckett's Theatre in America: The Legacy of Alan Schneider as Beckett's American Director was published by Palgrave Macmillan. She is currently vice president of the Edward Albee Society and will guest edit a volume of the annual series "New Perspectives" in Edward Albee Studies in 2019. A proponent of diversity and inclusion across campus, she taught Loyola's first ever explicitly LGBT-themed course, Queer Theatre and Film, has served as the faculty moderator for Spectrum, and is a member of OUTLoyola, where she frequently leads SafeZone training for groups across campus. Dr. Bianchini has directed seven productions for the Evergreen Players, including "Lysistrata"(2012), and "Rhinoceros" (2015), both of which were Humanities Symposium texts as well as "Clybourne Park" (2015), which was the Messina common text for first-year students in the Class of 2019, the class for which she will now serve as class dean.

Arthur M. Sutherland, Ph.D., 2020 Class Dean

Dr. Arthur Sutherland, who holds advanced degrees from Yale University Divinity School and Princeton Theological Seminary, is an associate professor of theology. Dr. Sutherland conducted research in Germany and Switzerland for his dissertation on Karl Barth and has received fellowships from the Fund for Theological Education, the Association for Religion and Intellectual Life, the Christian Scholars Fund, and the Wabash Center for the Teaching of Theology and Religion. His research interests are in the history of Christian doctrine, African-American theology, and the spirituality of generosity. His book, I Was a Stranger: A Theology of Christian Hospitality, which addresses immigration, exile, and violence, was nominated for the Grawemeyer Award for Religion. As Loyola's director of national fellowships since 2007, he has helped students win nearly 40 prestigious academic awards including scholarships from Fulbright, Goldwater, Gilman, Critical Languages, Lilly, and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). As the director, he helped secure $100,000 in donor funding for the new Jennings Family International Summer Research Scholarship for Undergraduates. In 2007, he founded the Ignatian Pedagogy Seminar for Loyola's faculty, which has enabled almost 25 percent of the faculty to explore approaches to Jesuit education. He is a member of the Messina faculty, taught in the Alpha program for 12 years, and has taught in the Honors program since 2003.

Birgit Albrecht, Ph.D., 2021 Class Dean

Dr. Birgit Albrecht, a native of Germany, was awarded her DPhil degree from the University of Oxford and was a post-doctoral research fellow at Yale University. Her research interests in physical, theoretical, and computational chemistry focus on computational studies of protein-protein and protein-ligand interactions at the interface of chemistry and biology. Last summer, she was co-PI for a National Science Foundation grant to establish a supercomputer at Loyola. Dr. Albrecht joined the Loyola community in 2007, has served as a core and major advisor, and is known for her dedication to her students. She has served multiple terms on the Academic Standards committee and the National Fellowship committee where she mentored students applying for Rhodes, Marshall, Mitchell, Fulbright, and Goldwater scholarships. She is committed to continuing to improve the educational experience for our students and currently serves on the ReImagining the Curriculum Committee. As a dedicated teacher-scholar, she has taken a specific interest in peer-led and active learning approaches and has used these pedagogical changes, as well as greater inclusion of technology, to foster a more active learning environment and to increase student engagement and retention. Most recently, she has spearheaded the Supplemental Instruction (SI) pilot program on campus by working collaboratively with the professionals at The Study to offer supplemental support to students in introductory chemistry courses.

Dr. Lisa Oberbroeckling holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Iowa and masters and doctoral degrees in mathematics from the University of Oregon. She has published several articles on her research in functional and numerical analysis. Having served as president of Loyola’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, she was also chair of the Phase II group on the student experience and co-chair of the career outcomes strategic planning working group. She has served on Board of Discipline appeal hearings and received Title IX training for adjudicating sexual misconduct and assault cases. Dr. Oberbroeckling has been Loyola’s NCAA faculty athletic representative since 2010. With considerable experience in teaching in Loyola’s first-year programs, she currently teaches Messina. She is also a co-investigator on the NSF S-STEM grant that provides scholarships and mentoring to students of financial need majoring in computer science, physics, mathematics, and statistics (the CPaMS Scholars Program).

Rebecca Zukowski earned her B.S. in Nursing from Carlow College, M.S. in Nursing from Marquette University, and Ph.D. in Administration and Leadership Studies from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She is a former Dean of Nursing and professor, with a clinical background in public health, pediatrics, and adult health. Her research and scholarly activities include total population health, determinants of recovery and resilience to disaster, interprofessional pedagogies and learning outcomes, and faculty workload modeling. She is a former associate editor for Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness and has participated in field research with the National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health. Dr. Zukowski is a former officer in the United States Navy and has served on hospital and non-profit boards throughout her career. Her role at Loyola provides her the opportunity to support evidence-based clinical education, client care, research, and scholarship that will help improve lives and engage the Loyola and Greater Baltimore communities. She also serves in a consultative role to academic departments in support strategic graduate initiatives.

Dr. Jean Lee Cole joined the Department of English in 2001 and was tenured and promoted to associate professor in 2007. She received her B.A. in English from Carleton College, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Texas-Austin. She is the author or editor of several volumes and peer-reviewed articles that explore the works of multiethnic American writers, American periodicals, and American visual culture, including Zora Neale Hurston: Collected Plays (2008) and Freedom's Witness: The Civil War Correspondence of Henry McNeal Turner (2013). She is also an editor of the academic journal American Periodicals and a former president of the Research Society for American Periodicals. She teaches courses in American literature, focusing on the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; in her courses she has incorporated service-learning, research on literary communities in Baltimore—past and present—and public and online exhibit projects. As the Faculty Director of Community-Engaged Learning and Scholarship, Dr. Cole works closely with Academic Affairs and the Center for Community Service and Justice, especially the Assistant Director of Service-Learning, to imagine, encourage, and help faculty enact thoughtful ways to connect community needs with academic endeavors in mutually beneficial partnerships at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Dr. Cole’s appointment comes with residency in the Center for Community Service and Justice where she works with faculty, students, departments, and community partners year-round.

Kristen L. Fisher, Director of Academic Events

Ms. Fisher is responsible for the coordination of academic events and ceremonies, such as Commencement and Commencement-related events, Honors Convocation, New Student Convocation, Martin Luther King, Jr. Convocation and faculty development workshops.

Tracey D. Frey, Program Director for Academic Assessment and Effectiveness

Tracey Frey joined Loyola in 2009 to support the University’s institutional accreditation efforts for the 2010 Middle States Self-Study. She reported on progress of the 2008 Grounded in Tradition, Educating for the Future strategic plan, coordinated efforts for the 2015 Middle States Periodic Review Report, and served on the drafting committee for the University’s 2015-16 strategic planning efforts. She returns to Loyola after serving as Director of Accreditation and Compliance Services at Towson University, where she worked on the University Assessment Council and the Subcommittee on Institutional Effectiveness, coordinated the academic program review process, and maintained institutional accreditation. She joins the Office of Academic Affairs to strengthen a division-wide assessment system and to integrate program review and accreditation processes, as appropriate.